What To Do When You Are Stuck In Your Life/Career

We’ve all been there. It’s a Friday night and you’re scrolling through Facebook and you see a friend of yours just got a promotion. And this isn’t just any old promotion; It’s the position that you want to be in. Almost instantly you start to think less of yourself. You think they are smarter than you and that’s why they got the job or you start to think that life is just unfair. You start to question why you aren’t in the career you thought you’d be in at this point in your life. Sounds familiar, right?

Well, the good news is that you’re not alone and there are ways to overcome this. Follow these 4 tips to get out of this rut and get back on track.

~Tip #1: Stop Comparing Yourself to Others~

We are all guilty of comparing ourselves to others and asking the universe why we don’t have the good fortune that others seem to have, but it’s extremely detrimental to our happiness and our well being. Social media has made it very easy to compare ourselves, but it doesn’t show the true picture. It may have taken you 10 years to graduate college, but what we don’t see is that you had to work 3 jobs in order to afford to even take one class a semester. On the other hand, it might have taken you 4 years to graduate, but what we don’t see is the crippling amount of debt that you will have to carry for many years.

Some people may be successful at 18 and others not until they are 40. Even JK Rowling didn’t publish her first book until she was in her thirties and it took her several years to complete the Harry Potter series. What we didn’t see is that she was refused by dozens of publishing companies before one said yes to her book. It might have been very easy for her to give up her dream, but I bet it didn’t matter to her when it happened because she believed in her dream and didn’t compare her situation to others.

~Tip #2: If You Must Compare, Compare to Yourself~

If you think about it, there’s only one “you” in this world, so it doesn’t make sense to compare yourself to someone who isn’t you. It would make more sense to compare your current self to your past self. What bad habits did you kick this year? Have you picked up some new ones? Where were you in your life this time last year?

Sometimes we forget how much we have grown and how quickly time passes. From day to day, we might not change much, but from year to year, we might change a lot. Remember to go easy on yourself and always look for small ways to improve. Comparing yourself to previous years can help to see how far you have come in your career and life. Reflect on your past self and compare to your current self. Do you like what you see? Do you need to make some changes?

~Tip #3: Set New Goals~

An important reason to compare yourself now to who you used to be is to come up with some new goals to improve yourself. Sometimes we let life just happen to us and we don’t always make a conscious effort to make a change. If you feel stuck in your life, figure out why and then make goals to fix the problem. Recently, I have been feeling frustrated with several areas of my life and instead of doing anything about it, I kind of just wanted to wallow in self pity. Guess what happened? Nothing. So, I knew that wasn’t going to help me. I began to ask myself some tough questions to understand why I was feeling the way I was and I decided to do something about it. I made a conscious effort to make a change in my life and set some new goals. You can find a video on how to achieve your goals here. Find out what areas of your life or career need some improvement and then set goals to help you make those improvements.

~Tip #4: Re-motivate Yourself~

Sometimes all we need to pull ourselves out of a rut is to remind ourselves why we wanted to be in the career or achieve the life we always wanted in the first place. I like to research people who are in the career I want to be in and I try to figure out how they did it. Ted Talks are my favorite way to do this. I also read books on successful people and try to find out their habits and what makes them so successful. I also like to use pictures on my vision board to portray the life I want to live. You can read my article on how to create a vision board here. I like being surrounded by motivation all the time so I’m constantly being reminded of my goals. Even re-arranging your workspace may help to motivate yourself. The environment you work in plays a huge part in your attitude and motivation, so if you have a messy workspace, your mind might feel cluttered and unmotivated. I find changing up my workspace or my room helps to keep fresh ideas flowing.

I hope that you found this post helpful and always remember that you are doing the best you can. Sometimes things happen slowly and sometimes all at once. It’s up to you to make change where needed and to also have the patience that things will work out. The universe has your back.

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